SLIG Welcomed First Time Attendees!

     In 2018, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy welcomed 88 first-time attendees to the Institute. That was almost one quarter of the total attendance of 382 students. It was exciting for us to see so many new faces!

     If you have never attended an institute before, you may be wondering what all the excitement is about and why you should consider attending an institute over all the other genealogical educational opportunities that are available.

     There are three primary reasons for giving an institute and, specifically SLIG, a try. The first is the incredible, in-depth coverage of a topic that you will receive in a course from the field's top educators and respected experts. Each course coordinator supplements their instruction with that of other nationally-recognized instructors. The courses may be methodologically based, like the course entitled Advanced Genealogical Methods coordinated by Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS. Or the course may be geographically based like The Pennsylvania German and Research in the Keystone State coordinated by Michael D. Lacopo, DVM. SLIG has many courses to choose from and in 2019 will be offering another great selection of 15 courses that will provide an excellent advanced educational opportunity.

     The second reason to attend an institute is the ability to network with respected experts as well as connect with other genealogists. Do you have friends and family members whose eyes glaze over when you start discussing your latest genealogical project? It won't happen at an institute, as you are among like-minded people. It is great to be able to share your latest find with a new friend or an old. By attending a course for a week, you have an excellent venue to get to know other genealogists much better than you would only seeing them in passing at a conference. The networking potential at an institute equals the great learning opportunity.

     Finally, another good reason to attend SLIG specifically is the ability to test out your new-found knowledge at the Family History Library (FHL). The FHL's collection includes "about 1.4 million rolls of microfilm on-site, along with over 600,000 books, serials, and maps. In addition, guests have free access to billions of additional record images online. The FHL has 550 Internet-enabled guess computers and over 200 microfilm and microfiche readers. The Library also offers free access to film, book, and photo scanning equipment...to digitally preserve and share family records."

     Are you convinced yet of the value of attending an institute? If you want to read about someone's personal experience as a first-time attendee, Diana Elder recently posted about her experience as a first time attendee at SLIG on her Family Locket blog.

     Hope to see you in January 2019!